Of Wolf and Man
by TJMac86
Summary: "Discipline and self reliance, Max. Two things this faction is severely lacking in. You want an army? You have to have both discipline and self reliance in spades. You mob are a bunch of poorly trained, undisciplined, easily corrupted cowboys. I train soldiers, not liabilities. You want me to turn this shit show into an army? You do it my way..."
1. Prologue

Kella stood beside Eric on the roof, waiting for this year's crop of initiates to jump from the train. Below her, she could hear Four, Zeke and Lauren placing their bets for first jumper. Zeke was vehement that it would be his brother, Four backing him up. Lauren was betting on an Erudite, but Kella had her own ideas after watching the choosing ceremony.

"A hundred credits on it being a stiff!" She shouts down into the ragged hole.

"You're on!" Comes the reply in triplicate.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..." Eric sighs from beside her, "You're gonna be down three hundred credits by the end of the day."

"Oh ye of little faith!" Kella turns to her skeptical husband. "Bet you a footrub I'm up three hundred before dinner."

"You're on, Esarossa!" Eric shouts after her as she skips closer to the train, just in case they have another one that misjudges the length of the platform this year.

She's glad she had the foresight to move, she would've never caught the Dauntless Born that missed the roof otherwise. She drags her back onto stable ground and picks her up off the gravel.

"Is this the first time you've jumped off a fucking train, you bloody dunce?!" The initiate shrinks beneath Kella's glare and lets out a squeak.

"Sorry Mrs C, won't happen again Mrs C, thank you Mrs C." She babbles as she backs away from Kella's intense stare and back toward her sister and the safety of the herd of initiates.

Kella feels eyes on the back of her head and looks toward the angry visage of her husband. Poor initiates, she thinks to herself, they're gonna be stuck with that angry bear for the rest of initiation. She moves back to her position beside him with a sigh.

"Again, Kella, really?" His lips barely move and the sound that comes from them is much lower that a whisper. She lifts a shoulder at him.

"I was never in any danger," She replies quietly "you can spank me later." She grins up at him. He sighs, gives her a half smile, and turns toward the waiting initiates.

"Initiates" Eric's booming voice gives Kella flashbacks to last year's initiation, and a pleasant shiver runs up her spine. "Congratulations on making it this far. My name is Eric Coulter, and I am one of your leaders. This is Kella Coulter, another one of your leaders, you may address her as Mrs C. Below our feet is your chosen faction, and the only way to get in is to jump. This faction is not for the faint of heart, we value bravery here at Dauntless, and we ask for proof of that bravery." He paused his speach for a moment, and Kella knew that it was for effect. "So... Who's first?"

**_This is a little time jump to the next initiation, next chapter will be not long after Kella completed initiation. Feel free to review, keeps my lazy arse writing _**


	2. Chapter One

Eric watched Max's face turn deeper and deeper red as the meeting went on. It had started out fine, just a routine Dauntless leader's meeting. Harrison had threatened to quit twice, Eric had told him he'd throw him into the chasm before he could hand in his letter of resignation, and Max had threatened to bash both their heads together. Everything was par for the course until Kella had put her first official request as a leader forward.

"No! Absolutely not! There's no precedent for a foray outside the fence, we have zero protocols in place for it, and we don't know what's out there!" Max was yelling at full volume now, anybody else in Chicago would shrink back into their seat. But not Kella.

"I was out there! Stuck in a bunker for a long fucking time! I got here, on foot I might add, with no support whatsoever! If I can do that, a section with provisions and a vehicle can get back to my bunker without a bloody problem. It's not like it's the Canning fucking Stock Route, it used to be a highway for Christ's sake!" Kella wasn't yelling yet, but her words came out with a quiet force that Eric knew to be the precursor to shouted words and nosebleeds.

"It's never been done, Kella!" Max was standing now, both of his hands on the table, leaning toward Kella while he shouted his objections. "You're not taking Dauntless soldiers out there into no man's land on a fucking whim!" Eric shrunk back into his seat a little, not at Max's outburst, but in anticipation of Kella's reaction.

"It's not a fucking whim, Max. You want me to teach this faction how to be a proper bloody army, and I need the supplies to do that. You can't throw these people out in the scrub without any fucking gear, they won't survive! You mob have been hunkered down in this city for centuries, guarding against snarks and grumpkins and the fucking factionless. You've forgotten that the rest of the world bloody well exists! You're fucking soft, Max! You mob all need to take a spoonful of concrete and harden the fuck up! If there is anything bad out there past that useless fucking fence, it'd wipe you all out in a matter of minutes. You don't have the training to ward off a full scale attack from any sort of half formed army, you don't have the discipline to do what needs to be done in that sort of situation, and the only person with half a prayer of teaching you fuckers how to actually be self sufficient is here arguing with you over a short fucking supply run!" Kella stood up, and even though Max towered over her, her sheer force of personality sat him on his arse. He looked up at her as she continued her rant.

"I made that run on foot in four days, and I wasn't in a fucking hurry. Before this country went fucking mad, people used to commute that run in two bloody hours if the traffic was good! At worst, it'll take us two days in a vehicle, and that's only if we cop a flat or get bogged and have to winch a lot. It'll take me a couple of days to clear out the debris and trees from in front of the garage entrance, and a day or so to pack all the shit we need. We're likely to be back inside of a week, Max. Surely you can survive without us for that long. We only have six months before initiation starts, and I need to train enough instructors in advenced bushcraft to teach said initiates basic bushcraft before then. I'm running out of time already, mate, and I haven't even started yet. We don't have the time to wait for the city to make the packs, webbing, hootchies, sleeping bags, swags, nav gear, 14 by 14's, and all the rest of the shit I need to keep these kids alive in the scrub." Kella's eyes bored into Max's soul as she stared him down, and Eric was forever thankful he hadn't argued with her when she'd told him of her plans last night. Not that he would, her logic was sound, and Eric had no qualms about following Kella out beyond the fence.

"Why do you even need to teach bushcraft? I asked you to train an army for me, not to take a bunch of kids camping!" Eric smacks his forehead into the table and leaves it there, wishing Max would just do as he's told so this meeting could end.

"Discipline and self reliance, Max. Two things this faction is severely lacking in. You want an army? You have to have both discipline and self reliance in spades. You mob are a bunch of poorly trained, undisciplined, easily corrupted cowboys. I train soldiers, not liabilities. You want me to turn this shit show into an army? You do it my way, starting with a simple asset recovery mission. If you've changed your mind and don't want an army anymore, I'll go back to my bar and you mob can sort your shit out yourselves. Choose." Kella's voice rang out with strength and clarity as she gave Max her ultimatum.

"Fine, we'll put it to a vote. All for, say ay." Eric looked up in time to see Max's face fall as Kella, Harrison, Lynda and George's hands all went up along with his own. That left only Max and Rogers' hands both firmly on the table, a resounding victory for Kella from the seven Dauntless leaders.

"Good stuff, we leave tomorrow." Kella's tone brooked no argument as she sat down to continue the meeting, leaving Max spluttering and fumbling with the rest of his notes.

oOoOo

It was four in the morning when they set out. Rose was at the garage to see them off, promising Kella that she would take good care of 'Smoky Joe's' while they where gone, and making Stuart promise to be careful. Smiley's wife was also present to see off her husband, youngest son and eldest daughter. Both men stood stoically under her fussing over their appearance until her daughter Karen told her to "Cut the bullshit mum, we're only going for a week!" Thankfully, Lauren, Four and Zeke had managed to escape without any family members tearfully hanging off them, so Kella was able to round them up and get them into the back of the truck without much trouble. Eric hauled himself up to sit beside her as she climbed into the drivers seat, before throwing back the hatch to ask the seven Dauntless in the back if they where ready to go. At their confirmation, Kella started the vehicle and grabbed down the UHF handpiece.

"Zero Alpha, this is One Alpha. Radiocheck. Over."

"Umm One Alpha, this is Zero Alpha. Loud and clear. Um, over." The reply was hesitant, and Eric figured Four, Kella and himself had a lot more work to do to get the control room's RATEL procedures up to Kella's standard.

"Zero Alpha, this is One Alpha. Section One is heading out of Dauntless now, we'll see you in a week or so. Keep practicing. Out." Kella sighs as she puts the UHF back on it's cradle, throws her truck into gear, and starts the drive out of the only place Eric and the other Dauntless in the back of the truck had ever known.

oOoOo

Eric wakes up to Kella bashing on the partition between the cab and the back of the truck. At some point during their rough ride, he'd managed to dose off in his seat. It was dark now, and they where in the middle of a forest. Kella had the headlights off, and there wasn't much to see besides trees. The hatch slid open.

"Wakey wakey, hands off snakey." Kella's grin was slightly manic at this point, and Eric wondered how long he'd slept for. "We're on foot from here, kids. Let's get out and stretch our legs."

Eric heard grumbling from the back as he flicked his seat belt off and opened the door, half falling out as he decended the side of Kella's truck. By the time he had his legs stable underneath him, Kella had already thrown the back doors open, and the rest of their section was stumbling out of the vehicle.

"What time is it? Where are We?" Four rubs his eyes as he looked around the forest.

"It's 3am, and we're not far out of Lafayette, about 120 miles or so south of Chicago." Eric notes that Kella's voice is a little off, but the others don't seem to notice as they all take in the surrounding area. "The garage entrance is just through those trees there, but we've gotta climb up this hill and take the long way down. We'll start on clearing this out later today when we've had some sleep." Kella leads and Eric falls into step behind her, the rest of the section following behind him. In the 15 minutes it takes them to climb the densely wooded hill, the brisk breeze has woken Eric and the others up some. By the time Kella stops at a non-descript service hatch, Eric is actively paying attention to his surroundings. Not that there's much to pay attention to, it looks very much like the wooded areas around Amity, except the undergrowth seems thicker.

"Alright, down we go." Kella touches a concealed control panel and drags the manhole type cover open to reveal a ladder that doesn't seem to have an end. "Eric, love, you go first, then everyone else. Four and I will bring up the rear and close the door on our way through. Pop pop, down we go everyone." Eric eyed the ladder as Kella spoke. It looked plenty stable, but she was gonna have a hard time getting Four down there. He shrugged and left the visibly pale ex stiff in Kella's more than capable hands as he started the descent into darkness.

It wasn't as bad as it looked from the top, he was standing on solid ground with very dim lighting inside of ten minutes. There was a small jump at the bottom, and he helped the others down as they reached him. There was a large gap between Lauren and Kella, and Eric could hear Kella speaking calmly to Four as he decended with her slowly. He had a look around while he was waiting, and was very nonplussed by the small room. It was roughly hewn out of the native rock, with a very secure looking door on one side. The only technology in the room was another small control panel beside the door.

Before long, he spotted Kella's legs above him, and reached out to drag her back into his chest so he could wrap his arms around her. She put her head back and looked up at him with a slightly stricken expression, and Eric clicked as to what was making her edgy. She was now back in the place where she had woken up alone. The place where she had realised that everyone she knows is dead, and have been for a few centuries. Eric squeezes her to his chest harder, trying to lend her some strength as he kisses her cheek and neck. She gives him half of a cheeky smile as she moves away from him to help Four down, so he thinks she'll be ok.

Once Four is down, she moves straight to the control panel and opens the door into what was once her prison, and may just end up being their city's salvation.


	3. Chapter Two

Four looked into the hole with dread in his heart. Everyone else had disappeared into it, and he hadn't heard a scream or a splat yet, but he still had to wipe his hands on his pants before he swung his legs down onto the ladder. Kella was right there beside him as he lowered himself down, and she whispered "Shut the door" as he lowered himself down to her level.

With the hatch shut and the minimal moonlight gone, Four couldn't see his hand in front of his face. His other senses picked up as his grip tightened on the rung in front of him. He could feel the cold metal in his grip and Kella's small body against his, could hear the blood rush past his eardrums and Kella's quiet breathing behind him, could smell dirt and rust and something else that was a little sweet, a little salty, and entirely appetizing.

"One foot at a time." Her voice was right in his ear, lips just about touching his earlobe, and suddenly, she was down five or six rungs, hand wrapped around his ankle, directing his foot into the correct position.

And so they continued down. Kella shoving his feet onto the rungs beneath him until he froze in fear. Then he would feel her climb back up, her body pressing into him, her scent all around him, and her quiet voice in his ear again. It seemed like it took both an eternity and no time at all for them to get close to the bottom. Then she was gone, picked off the ladder by Eric and ensconced in his arms. He took a couple of breaths and finished the last of the climb down, Kella helping him with the jump to the bottom.

He closed his eyes and focused on the stale air moving in and out of his lungs for a moment, before following Eric into the place that had been Kella's home for centuries. They walked into a large elevator.

"Welcome home, Kella. Would you like me to draw you a bath?" The disembodied female voice made Four, Stuart, Smiley and Zeke jump. Eric drew his pistol and looked around for something to shoot while Lauren, Karen and Josh smiled at his antics. Kella just laughed and pressed a button labeled 'Main'.

"No thank you, Veronica. Can you please turn on backup generators one and two, ready guest rooms one through seven for visitors, put seven days of fresh rations for nine people in the big house's kitchen, air out armaments storage shed three and the recovery vehicle storage shed, and ready reactor two for start up. I'll be down there shortly to kick it in the guts." The elevator traveled down the whole time she was talking. When the doors opened, they where in a long hallway with what looked like a hospital on one side, and closed fire doors on the other side. Kella's stride was long, and it took them next to no time to reach the large set of fire doors at the end of the hallway.

"Will that be all, Kella?" The disembodied voice seemed to have followed them down the hall as they walked, and Kella pauses at the doors to answer it.

"That will be all for the moment, thank you, Veronica." Kella nods at nothing in particular and pushes both doors open.

"Welcome to codename 'Wolf's Den'. Make yourselves at home." Kella walked into the dimly lit room first, leading the way into a large courtyard filled with what must be Australian plants. There are trees that Four recognises as eucalypt, scrubby grey/green bushes with bright yellow fluffy flowers, and tall, dark green bushes with red flowers that looked like the round wire brush that he had seen Kella use to clean out exhaust pipes. The ground is mostly exposed red/brown clay, but long spikey grass grows in clumps, and some areas are covered in bright green mosses or light green lichens. A path made of slabs of stone winds it's way through the slightly chaotic garden, right up to the light source, which appears to be porch lights at the front door of a house. Four looks up and realises that he can't see the roof of the courtyard in the dark.

Kella wipes her feet on the woven doormat before she enters the front door, so Four and the others follow suit. They walk into a short hallway. There's a closed door on the left, and oil paintings hanging on the walls. Four recognises the style from 'Smokey Joe's'. The hallway opens up to the right into a large living room with a soft looking white, 'L' shaped lounge and a large flat screen tv on one wall. The other wall contains a strange desk contraption with a wheel and a large pedal underneath it. Kella continues on through an open door, so they follow her into a beautifully appointed, old country style kitchen. Everything is made of a rich toned wood, and all the canisters have roosters on them. Shiny copper pans hang on the walls and the room looks warm and inviting. But Kella continues on past the kitchen as well, finally coming to a stop in the huge dining room. She motions for everyone to sit at the twelve seat table while she stands at the head.

"I have to go start up another Thorium Reactor now, or we're not gonna have enough power to do everything we need to get done here in a week." Kella motions to a hallway off of the dining room. "You mob have got bedrooms through there, they've all got ensuite bathrooms, and if you wait another half hour or so, there aught to be enough hot water for everyone to have a shower. There's dry snacks in the pantry if you get peckish during the night, and Veronica should be stocking up the fridge shortly." She turns toward Eric and addresses him individually. "Do not shoot Veronica. I say again, do not shoot Veronica. I know from experience that she doesn't like it, and then I have to spend months fixing a bloody robot that hates me and isn't shy about letting me know it. Do. Not. Shoot. Veronica." Kella's face looks serious as she stares at Eric pointedly.

"Ok, Ok, I get it. I won't shoot the robot, I promise!" Eric looks perplexed at Kella's insistance, but Josh looks more than amused.

"You shot your robot!" He chuckles at Kella.

"I didn't even mean to shoot her, she startled me and I still wasn't feeling the best from when I woke up. She took bloody forever to forgive me, made my life a living hell until I'd fixed her properly. She's temperamental when she wants to be, so be nice to her." As usual with Kella, Four wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. He figured he'd be nice to Veronica, just in case Kella wasn't as crazy as she sounded. "Any questions?" Kella looks at each of the Dauntless sitting at the table in turn, and all shake their heads. "Good, Eric and I are the first left as you walk in the front door. Don't go wandering off out of the big house. Most of the storage facilities are sealed up 'cause there's no oxygen in them, but this house is all open and oxygenated, so you'll be fine if you stay inside. I'll be back in a couple of hours." Four watches as Kella gives Eric a quick kiss on the cheek and walks out a glass sliding door into what looks like another huge courtyard.

"Well, bedtime for me I think." Smiley gets up and stretches his arms over his head, yawning. "I'm going for guestroom one, Karen, Josh, you can have two and three. Four, I think we'll put you in four." Four rolls his eyes as the rest of their party laughs at his expense, even Eric was chuckling.

"Fuck you all, I'm going to bed."


End file.
